Summary
- Tokyo Broadcasting System has sealed a deal with the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne to incorporate Sasuke/Ninja Warrior obstacle designs into the new Olympic discipline of obstacle racing
- The International Olympic Committee voted unanimously in 2023 to replace equestrian show jumping with obstacle racing in the Modern Pentathlon, effective from the 2028 Los Angeles Games
- UIPM held its first Obstacle World Championships in Beijing in 2025, with the LA Olympics marking the discipline’s full Olympic debut
Tokyo Broadcasting System, the producer behind Sasuke and its global adaptations including American Ninja Warrior, has reached a licensing agreement with the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne to bring the format’s obstacle course IP into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Under the deal, UIPM will use TBS-designed obstacles as part of obstacle racing, the discipline officially replacing equestrian show jumping in the Modern Pentathlon starting with the LA Games.
The mechanics of the deal are straightforward. UIPM licensed the right to use specific Sasuke/Ninja Warrior intellectual property from TBS, including the design of certain obstacles, for use in competitive obstacle racing. The two organizations have been in a working relationship since 2022, running a series of test events that informed the development of UIPM’s obstacle racing format before the IOC voted unanimously in 2023 to include it at the LA Games. UIPM held its first Obstacle World Championships in Beijing in 2025, making the 2028 Olympics the discipline’s formal debut on the world’s largest stage.
The road to that debut stretches back three decades. TBS first broadcast Sasuke in 1997, and the format became an immediate sensation in Japan before spreading to more than 160 countries and regions, spawning local versions in over 25 of them. The US adaptation American Ninja Warrior is currently in its 18th season, premiering June 8 on NBC — a detail that underscores just how deeply the format has embedded itself into mainstream sports entertainment culture. What began as a Japanese primetime spectacle built around physical extremity and near-impossible feats has, over 30 years, evolved into a globally recognized competitive discipline with its own governing body, world championships, and now an Olympic classification.
The Modern Pentathlon itself has a parallel history of reinvention. Introduced at the 1912 Olympics with five disciplines — fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping, running and shooting — it has been in near-constant evolution since. Running and shooting were consolidated into “laser run” in a previous reform cycle, and equestrian show jumping was removed following the 2024 Paris Games after years of pressure to modernize the event’s appeal. Obstacle racing fills that gap with a format that already commands a global audience, which is precisely the logic the IOC applied when it cast its unanimous vote.
“It is 30 years since TBS turned obstacle racing into a television phenomenon with the original ‘Sasuke,’” said UIPM president Rob Stull via Variety. “Modern Pentathlon has held a continuous place in the Olympic Games since 1912, constantly evolving over the decades to satisfy the viewing preferences of sports fans around the world.” TBS Holdings executive officer Katsuaki Setoguchi called the convergence “a groundbreaking milestone,” noting that both organizations will work together to cross-promote the format as the LA Games approach.
